


I’ve got a special gift for you

by mseg_21



Category: IT (2017), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Eddie and Richie are neighbors, Flirting, It's Richie so that's a given, M/M, Modern AU, Reddie, Swearing, They are in their mid 20s in this, They don't know each other until now
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-06
Updated: 2018-03-06
Packaged: 2019-03-27 19:02:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13887171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mseg_21/pseuds/mseg_21
Summary: In which Richie Tozier can't wrap gifts to save his life and he must enlist the help of his neighbor, Eddie Kaspbrak, who he hasn't met before, to wrap his best friend's birthday present.Reddie oneshot based on the prompt: Character A can't wrap gifts to save their life. Character B is their neighbor and can help.





	I’ve got a special gift for you

**Author's Note:**

> Just a short little something inspired on a prompt I found yesterday. Enjoy <3

Eddie is walking up the final flight of stairs to get to his apartment floor when he hears someone, a man, curse loudly.

“FUCK!” He stops, surprised, and looks around trying to find the voice’s owner. He sees no one and he figures it must have come from outside the building, except, less than a minute later, he hears it again. “Shit, fuck!” and then, “Motherfucker!”

It’s definitely coming from inside the building and from the floor above him, Eddie’s floor. Maybe someone locked themselves out of their apartment or they dropped something important trying to open the door.

He reaches the fourth floor, but there is no one there. Eddie frowns, he is about to ignore it and go inside his apartment, when the door to his left, the one from apartment 4B, opens and then a crazy looking man appears and points at Eddie.

“You!” Eddie flinches and takes a couple of steps back to distance himself from the man. He must have noticed, because when he speaks again, his voice is softer and less aggressive, “I need your help!”

“Uhh…” Not sure of what he should say, Eddie just stares at the man. He has never seen him before, he knew someone had moved in about two weeks ago to the apartment across from his, but him and his new neighbor had never crossed paths before, not until today.

He is tall, taller than Eddie but his friends would tell you that that’s not saying much, since pretty much everyone is taller than him. Just like Eddie, the man has dark curls but, whereas Eddie’s are combed and carefully styled, his are messy and unruly. He is pale, with countless freckles dusted across his nose and cheeks, his eyes are brown and huge thanks to the coke-bottle glasses he is wearing. Right now those eyes seem crazed and desperate, but there is still a warmness in them that keeps Eddie from running into his apartment and locking the door behind him.

All in all, the guy is pretty handsome, and as much as Eddie tries to deny it, that is part of the reason why instead of walking away, he takes two steps closer to the guy and asks, while narrowing his eyes, “Exactly what do you need help with?” Handsome or not, he was not about to agree to help the guy before knowing what he was getting himself into.

The guy sighs, “Okay, this is pretty embarrassing to admit, especially to your cute neighbor, but I’m running out of time, so I’m kind of desperate. I am an idiot, who can’t for the life of him, wrap a gift and my best friend’s birthday party is in less than an hour and like the worst friend ever I only picked her gift today and there wasn’t anyone at the stupid store who could wrap it for me, because the girl who usually does that was in labor or something, talk about bad fucking timing. So I bought wrapping paper thinking, ’Hey, Richie, it can’t be that hard to wrap a fucking present, right?’ Wrong! There is a reason why I was held back in kindergarten and that reason is my complete lack of fine motor skills. So, basically, I need you to be my fucking hero and wrap the gift for me, before I lose my mind, or you know, a finger.”

Eddie just stares at him, his eyes growing wider and wider the more the guy talked. By the time he finishes, he is out of breath and staring back at Eddie in desperation and as hard as he tries, Eddie can’t hold back the laughter that the whole situation wakes in him.

“Right, yeah, by all means, go ahead and laugh at my suffering” The man says, but he is staring at Eddie in amusement. That only makes him laugh harder, he tries to talk but ends up giggling instead. “Fuck, you’re cute when you laugh!” the man comments with a small smile and that is all it takes for Eddie to sober up and stop laughing, as the color starts to rise in his cheeks.

“Uh… I’m sorry about that, I just didn’t expect all the cursing and the ’I need your help’ to be about a gift you couldn’t wrap.”

“What did you thought it was about?”

“Honestly, anything from needing help with the disposal of a body to hiding your stash of weed from our landlord crossed my mind.”

Now is the guy’s turn to snort, “So, in your head, I’m either a murderer or a drug dealer, good to know.”

“Hey, you can’t blame me, I mean you just moved in, I haven’t seen you around before, not once. And the first time I see you, you jump me in the hallway, demanding my help. Just what am I supposed to think?”

“You got me there. In retrospect, I should have introduced myself sooner, defuse all of your misconceptions about me. The truth is, I had no idea my neighbor was this cute”, the guy says with a wink. Again, Eddie gets flustered at his obvious flirting, but he recovers easier this time.

“Yet here we are and you still haven’t introduced yourself”, he answers, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

“Forgive me! My name is Richie, Richie Tozier, pleased to make you acquaintance” He says, grabbing Eddie’s hand and kissing it lightly.

Eddie laughs at Richie’s weirdness. Then he says, “I’m Eddie Kaspbrak.”

“Cute name for a cute boy! Are you going to help me with my problem, Eddie Spaghetti?”

Eddie frowns, “Only if you promise never to call me that again.”

“What about Eds?” Richie asks, raising his eyebrows.

“Let’s just stick with Eddie.”

“Aw, you will learn to love my nicknames. All of my friends do!”

“I’m your friend now?”

“Well, after you help me with the gift wrapping, you will be.”

“Is that supposed to convince me to do it? Because it sounds more like a punishment.”

Richie laughs at that, “You are a feisty little thing, aren’t you?”

Eddie glares at him, “I am not little, you’re just a fucking giraffe!”

“Whatever you say, Eds.”

Eddie was about to argue, whether it’d be about the condescendence in Richie’s tone or the stupid nickname, he wasn’t sure. But before he could, Richie’s phone started blasting Smash Mouth’s “All Star”, surprising the both of them.

“Shit!” Richie muttered before answering the call, “Bevvie, hi! Yes, of course. I’m already on my way, there’s traffic though so I might be a little late. There’s still traffic on Saturdays! Tell Stan to suck it! Right, yeah, bye!” Then, after he hung up, he said, “Fuck!”

“Everything okay?”

“No, not really, I needed to get going like… thirty minutes ago if I wanted to be on time. Look Eddie, as much as I am loving our flirtatious banter, I need to go or else Beverly is going to kill me. Would you please, please, help me with the gift?” Richie said, so earnestly that Eddie took pity on him.

“Fine, but only because you used my actual name!” He said, and followed a beaming Richie into his apartment.

Inside it seemed as if a tornado had come and go, there were crumpled pieces of wrapping paper all over the floor, there were also pieces of tape on every available surface and a pair of scissors by the far wall as if Richie had thrown them against it in frustration.

Eddie turned to look at Richie in question. He just shrugged his shoulders and bend to pick up what Eddie guessed was the problematic gift. It consisted of a big shoe box, probably containing a pair of boots based on the size, a pair of leopard print sunglasses and three packs of gummy worms. He handed all of that and a roll of wrapping paper to Eddie.

He sat on the couch, placed the items on the small coffee table and went to work. Richie stared at him while he did, occasionally assisting Eddie in the process by holding the paper or handing him a piece of tape.

“Fuck, you make it look so easy, Eds!” He had exclaimed, when Eddie was almost finished.

With a chuckle, Eddie had answered, “That’s because it _is._ ”

Less than five minutes later, the gift was ready to go. Eddie handed it back to Richie who sticks on it a small card with the name Bev and the words ’Happy birthday’ written on it. Then he turns to look at Eddie and says, “You are a fucking life saver, Eds! Thank you!”

“It was nothing.”

“Oh no, trust me, it was everything!” Richie says, then his eyes lit up with an idea and he adds, “Let me buy you dinner sometime, as a thank you.”

Eddie narrows his eyes, “Please tell me this wasn’t an overly complicated scheme to get me to go out with you.”

Richie laughs, “No, sadly, I actually suck at gift wrapping. So, what do you say? You, me, dinner sometime next week?”

Eddie pretends to think it over, but the truth is, he had made up his mind about going out with him, the moment he saw Richie.

“Well, there’s this new Mexican place a few blocks from here that I’ve been dying to try. Does Friday work for you?”

Richie is beaming, “Friday is _perfecto_ , my good _señor_ ” he says, and when Eddie just stares at him, he clears his throat and explains, “That’s my Pancho Villa voice, you know because he is from Mexico? No? Okay. Friday works for me, yes.”

Eddie shakes his head at Richie’s antics, but he is smiling, “Great.”

Then Richie’s phone starts ringing again, he picks it up without looking at the screen and says, “I swear to fuck Beverly, you are worse than a girlfriend! I’ll get there when I get there!” a pause, “Oh. Sure Bevvie, I can pick some up on my way! Bye!”

Eddie raises his eyebrows in question, “She needs me to get more ice for the party” Richie says. Then he grabs his coat, his wallet and his keys and turns to look at Eddie. “Uh, not that I don’t love having a cute boy like you in my apartment, Eds, but I really have to go.”

“Oh. Right.” He says, and leaves the apartment with Richie on tow, “I guess I’ll see you around then”, he adds opening the door to his own apartment.

“Oh, you will see me alright, Eddie Spaghetti!” Richie replies, walking backwards away from him.

“Jesus Christ, Richie, be careful” Eddie says when he gets too close to the steps. And because he just _knows_ Richie is about to comment on Eddie’s concern for him, he adds, “If you fall, you are going to ruin my perfectly wrapped gift.”

Laughing, Richie turns around and starts descending the steps, two at a time.

Eddie is already inside and about to close the door, when Richie calls for him.

“Hey Eddie! Next time you come to my apartment, instead of wrapping up a present for me, I’ll give you something to unwrap” he says smirking, and then, in case Eddie didn’t understand the innuendo, he adds “and by something I mean my- “

Eddie shuts the door before Richie is even done talking but even through it he can hear the other man’s laughter, fading as he walks down the stairs. He leans back against the closed door and shakes his head. There was no doubt that Richie Tozier was a complete idiot, but that didn’t stop Eddie from thanking the heavens for all those times during the holidays, when his mom and aunts had forced him to go with them to those, boring as hell, gift wrapping lessons. After all, they had just scored him a date.


End file.
